Oct. 21, 2011

New Haven, Conn. - Fordham's four singles entries and two doubles teams are among the many competitors at the 2011 USTA/ITA Northeast Regional this weekend, hosted at Yale University. Day one for the Rams was highlighted by Fordham's Bella Genkina, who won a pair of qualifying matches to advance to the main singles draw on Saturday.

Genkina began the day against Connecticut's Maxie Weinberg, downing her in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Genkina moved on to play Cornell's Nina Turudic for a spot in the main draw, as Turudic upset the third seed, Rachel Decker-Sadowski of Dartmouth. Genkina earned early breaks against Turudic, defeating her in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to earn a qualifying spot in the Round of 132 during Saturday's main singles draw.

In doubles action, Fordham's duo of Amy Simidian and Sarah Ali defeated Marist's Erin McCarthy and Joana Sun, 8-2, to advance to the Round of 32 against Penn's Stephanie Do and Alex Ion. The Quaker pairing was just a bit stronger than Simidian and Ali, taking the match, 8-4.

Fordham's second doubles match featured Genkina and Hanna Fritzinger against Binghamton's Jillian Santos and Missy Edelblum. Fordham had two match points, but Binghamton's pairing came back to win in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (3).

Play at the ITA Regional continues on Saturday, starting at 9:00 AM.